October 24, 2014

Work of Art

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, assortment, card, challenge, collage, Gorgeous Grunge, kinda eclectic, Stampin' Up, star framelits, trust god, watercolour 3 Comments

Check out my design this week using the Trust God stamp set with a little flare. This card shows off my artistic side using layers of sponging, stamped images, and even a bit of a watercolour technique. I had fun with it. It might just end up in a frame and given as a gift.

Do you ever consider that a card you’ve designed could be a gift? You really should. With the love and attention that each card receives as you choose your colour scheme, your layout, the mood of your project and the sentiment that speaks to the one who receives it – your card is an offering of a part of you. We think of greeting cards as a means of communicating our thoughts and well-wishes to the recipient. But they are so much more than that! If we wanted only to communicate, we could write a note on a plain piece of paper and give that instead.

No, our cards are more than a written note. They are a piece of us – an extension of our hearts, of our love, of our personality. I think that’s why I can’t give away a card that I don’t like. It just doesn’t fit; it feels wrong!

(sometimes I can’t give away a card that I really love either – because it’s so much of me. It’s like it needs to go to the perfect person; one who would understand the love that I am giving away)

My design today is inspired by this week’s As You See it Challenge. Assortment challenges can be a bit more difficult at times, but they are also an opportunity to really stretch those tight creative muscles.

(I like the “more than four words” element. The blah blah blah blah made me chuckle.)

Somehow, I knew what I wanted to do with this card right away. I envisioned a sunburst image made up of a circle surrounded by triangles as rays of light. Light makes me think of God (Light of the world), so I immediately looked at my Trust God sentiments to see what would fit in the circle. The sentiment I chose fit perfectly considering that my card itself would be a bit artistic, than paper crafty.

I really wish you could see this one in person. I am really pleased with how it turned out! Photos never do cards justice. They are always better in your hand.

It began with a circle cut with my Circle framelits from a sheet of Watercolour paper. I inked up the sunburst stamp from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set in Strawberry Slush ink, then spritzed it with a fine mist of water until I was able to see a few droplets of water on the rubber. This I stamped on the watercolour paper and allowed it to dry before stamping the sentiment from the Trust God stamp set in Jet Black Stazon ink. I first tried to mat the image using the next size up of the Circle Framelits, but that was just too much black. So I took the black circle that I didn’t want and punched out a circle from it with my 2.5″ Circle Punch. I was left with a remaining ring of black, which I decided was going to be used on my card!!

The card base is Basic Black cardstock. On it is the sponged and stamped layer that was transformed from Calypso Coral cardstock, to the finished result that you see on my card. Using Stampin’ Up sponges, I added Tangerine Tango, Strawberry Slush, Melon Mambo, and Rich Razzleberry ink until the cardstock was filled with rich colour. I also sponged Tuxedo Black Momento ink all around the edges of the cardstock. This draws the eye in and, I think, gives a more finished look to the paper.

The triangles from the Geometrical stamp set were stamped in Real Red and Melon Mambo around the circle. I also stamped the dots image from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set and the sketched line image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set using Rich Razzleberry ink. The leaves from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set were stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.

Once I was happy with my image placement, I adhered the layers. The matted circle is raised up with Stampin’ Up dimensionals (whatever would I do without these precious sticky-foam risers!)

The final touch was to add the gold sequins. I prefer to use Crystal Effects for my sequins as it dries clear and is no longer sticky when dry (unlike other Stampin’ Up adhesives that stay sticky where it isn’t covered). The sequins on their own just didn’t seem like enough, so I grabbed my Gold Stampin’ Dazzle Marker (who names these things?) and with shaky hands, worried I would ruin my ENTIRE card, I added little hand-drawn circles so they could play with the big kids. I only had to add one or two extra sequins to cover up little circles that got out of hand.

And there you have it.

I hope you will give this challenge a try. Just head on over to the As You See It blog, check out the other designers’ projects, then get in your crafty space and make something! Don’t forget to link it to the challenge page so we can all be inspired by your take on this one!

I’m heading off for a stamping weekend at a the beautiful Rockridge Canyon Conference and Retreat Centre! I hope to finish the weekend with lots of projects that I can share with you over the next few weeks or through classes that I will offer in the next couple months. I’m so excited for some ultimate design time!!

Hope you get some amazing design time this weekend, too!

Amy

October 10, 2014

Fall Cheer

Amy Jasper Uncategorized As You See It, bring on the boos, card, challenge, fall, Gorgeous Grunge, halloween, holiday, Making spirits bright, Stampin' Up 4 Comments

Here we are again on a Friday where I get to share my designs for the As You See It Challenge blog. Challenge #57 is a fall theme!

The theme today is fall, but I didn’t feel much like doing the leaf thing and the typical fall colours (though I didn’t COMPLETELY deviate from the theme, lol!). I was minding my own business, leading a class through their 12 Christmas cards, when I decided I’d better take the opportunity of a lull and get my challenge card designed. I grabbed a bin of scraps and looked at the stamp sets we were working with – Ah yes, there was the Making Spirits Bright stamp set! AHA!

It is for this very stamp that I purchased this cute stamp set with various holiday glasses and sentiments. I just loved the eyeball in place of an olive!

So I still have the traditional green, yellow and orange for fall colours, but I love the addition of the blue and black. Here I have Lost Lagoon for the card base, Hello Honey and Basic Black layers over the Whisper White mat, then an Old Olive piece cut with the Top Note die in the Big Shot and sponged around the edges with a little bit of Mossy Meadow ink. Finally, the Whisper White with a splash of Tangelo Twist ink (stamped with one of the Gorgeous Grunge stamps) to show off the stamped image. I even added a touch of the Medium Night of Navy Blendability marker to the iris of my eyeball (no offense to fellow brown-eyed beauties, I just thought blue would show up a bit better)

You can see in the image above, that I used Stampin’ Up Dimensionals under the Old Olive cut out layer and the Whisper White circle. Flat cards and I are not often friends. I try. Sometimes we gel, sometimes we don’t.

And, Baby Cakes, I even added a fall-themed stamp to the inside of my card! I’m thankful for fun drink glasses with fun things inside them (like eyeballs) and I’m thankful for friends to enjoy them with!

For all these things, I do give thanks 🙂

Head on over to the As You See It Challenge blog and play along.

Be sure to leave me a comment about how gross an eyeball is in your drink!

Cheers!!

Amy

October 3, 2014

Winter Joy

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Techniques As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, Gorgeous Grunge, lovely as a tree, masking, Stampin' Up, star confetti punch, technique, wonderful wreath 9 Comments

I love designing with my Stampin’ Up! inks, paper, stamps, and tools. I’ve fallen in love with this beautiful sponged winter landscape technique using Lovely as a Tree.

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another As You See It Challenge card. We’re on challenge #56.

I was teaching a technique card class last night and we were working on a project using the technique in this video and remembered I needed to design a card for the challenge blog today. I thought I would use this great sponged landscape technique and add my own touch and style for my As You See It design.

If you click on the link for the video above, you’ll see how the trees and hills were created. I used Island Indigo and Night of Navy for my sponged hills. Mossy Meadow ink was used to stamp the coniferous trees while Night of Navy ink was used for the deciduous trees. For the snow, I simply used one of the splatter images from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and stamped it multiple times over the completed winter scene with Whisper White craft ink.

You can see in the above picture that my JOY cutout (from the Wonderful Wreath framelits) looks a little bit different than a regular die-cut piece of cardstock. We were shown this technique at a workshop at the Inspire.Create.Share Stampin’ Up! Convention this last July. The look is achieved by layering 5 or so cuts of the same framelit or punch. To make it easier to adhere each layer together, you can apply an Adhesive Sheet to your cardstock before cutting out your image. I chose to use Night of Navy cardstock for the bottom layers, then top it with Whisper White cardstock for my JOY image.

I added some Basic Rhinestones to the tree in the foreground and a little Silver Glimmer paper star on the top that I cut using my Star Confetti Border Punch.

The inside layer of my card shows a couple of trees stamped with Night of Navy ink, then sponged over top with the Island Indigo and Night of Navy combo of inks to coordinate with the card front.

Hmm. Now I’m thinking I should have added snow to those little trees inside my card. I might just go back and add that yet!

And, of course, I really like Stampin’ Up Dimensionals, so I used them to pop up the white matted layer over the Night of Navy card base.

I hope you’ll try this cute sketch! Go on over to the As You See It Challenge Blog and check out what the other designers have done. Then give it a go yourself!!

Amy